THE MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, by Richard Fisch, John Weakland, Paul Watzlawick, & their colleagues

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

MAJOR CONCEPTS

• Communication theory (levels, rules & congruence).

• First vs. second order change.

• Cybernetics/positive feedback loops.

• Focus on the presenting complaint.

• Most motivated person in family is used.

• Unit of treatment can be one person.

• Primary determinant of behavior is other people’s behavior.

• Life cycle transition points are significant.

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

THEORY OF DYSFUNCTION

• Attempts at solutions become the problem.

• Vicious cycles of mishandled attempts to solve the problem.

• Family engages in “more of the same”, maintaining the problem.

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

THEORY OF CHANGE

• Change the complementarity, interdependent nature of the symptoms.

• Change sequences by identifying the “vicious cycle”.

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

STAGES OF THERAPY

• Setup and definition of the problem

• Identify & interrupt behavior maintaining the problem

• Set goals

• Intervention

• Termination

• Short-term therapy

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

THERAPIST’S STANCE

• Active

• Clients are viewed as customers

• Attend to process over content

• Team and one way mirror often used

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

TREATMENT METHODS

• Most motivated person in system

• Symptom-focused

• Tasks

• Paradox & reframe

• Encourage interaction

• Observe sequences

• Define maladaptive sequences

• Problem resolution

MRI BRIEF THERAPY MODEL

ASSESSMENTS

• Non-historic.

• Symptom-focused.

• Sequence of symptom-maintaining behaviors.

• Instances of circular causality.

COMMUNICATION THEORY

Originated by the MRI group, the study of the process by which verbal and nonverbal information is exchanged within a relationship. Communication can be analogic, which has little structure but is rich in content, or digital, which is verbal communication perceived and interpreted based on meaning.

CONJOINT THERAPY

Therapy that involves two or more family members, introduced by MRI psychiatrist Don Jackson in 1959 to describe marital therapy in which the spouses were seen together.

FIRST-ORDER CHANGE

From the MRI school, adaptations and changes in families that may change behavior but do not affect the system’s organization. For example, an adolescent begins maintaining his/her curfew as a result of being grounded for breaking curfew.

MRI / MENTAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

A center for the study of families in Palo Alto, CA, whose researchers and practitioners - Bateson, Satir, & Haley - studied schizophrenia and family interactions, communication, and cybernetic theory. They developed a version of brief family therapy based on the notions that the “problem”, or treatment focus, stems from the failed solution previously attempted by the family. Later MRI practitioners include Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch.

POSITIONING

From MRI Strategic Therapy, a paradoxical intervention in which the therapist amplifies or exaggerates the family’s explanation of the problem to such a point that the family will disagree.

PUNCTUATION

The process by which one arbitrarily identifies the beginning and the end of a behavioral sequence (linear causality) that instead, in MRI terms, should be seen as part of a circular pattern. Also, a communication pattern in which each participant believes what he/she says or does is caused by the other.

RESTRAINING TECHNIQUE

From MRI Strategic, a paradoxical therapeutic technique used when the family seems ambivalent about changing. The therapist warns the family of the dangers of change, retrains them from trying to change, or asks them to change slowly. Thus, the therapist aligns with the side of ambivalence that resists change so that the family will align with the side that wishes to change.

SECOND-ORDER CHANGE

From the MRI school, a change in the rules that govern the emotions and behavioral patterns of the system, resulting in fundamental system reorganization and permanent changes in interactions.

SYMMETRY

From Don Jackson and the MRI Group, the opposite of Complementarity, a relationship in which there is a relatively equal distribution of control and power, often resulting in rapid-escalation of conflict.

VICIOUS CYCLE

A self-reinforcing pattern of interaction in which individuals’ behaviors and perceptions maintain or intensify a problem over time. In the MRI model, vicious cycles are sustained by repeated “attempted solutions” that inadvertently perpetuate the difficulty, leading to rigid and maladaptive interactional sequences.

COMPLIMENTARITY

An interactional pattern in which members of an intimate relationship establish roles and take on behavioral patterns that fulfill the unconscious needs and demands of others.